The Musketeers Interview: Terry Kavanagh

Coming this February! Zenescope is proud and excited to bring to fans the new action-packed series, The Musketeers!

Written by a comic book legend, Terry Kavanagh, (Maximum Carnage and The Clone Saga), we witness him pull no punches and put his talent to work introducing brand new characters to the Grimm Universe!

We had the chance to interview Terry for the upcoming series, included some questions that could only come from Zenescope.

Z: From our understanding, you began editing Marvel Comics including Nick Fury, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.S. and then moved on to writing writing various comics including Moon Knight, X-Man, Web of Spider-Man, & Maximum Carnage, just to name a few. What have been the stand-out moments from your long career that stick with you since the beginning?

Terry: Working with the talent has always been the best part of writing and editing comics, then and now. I’ve developed close friendships with so many great people over the years just by telling stories together. The most obvious stand-out moments for me were learning from Ann Nocenti when I was her assistant; working with and becoming close friends with Alan Davis on Excalibur and Don McGregor on a number of Black Panther projects; shepherding Barry Windsor-Smith’s Weapon X serial in Marvel Comics Presents; nurturing so much new talent on stories involving pretty much every character in the Marvel Universe in MCP; working under, and becoming friends with, Mark Gruenwald and Tom DeFalco; the Clone Saga; writing and editing titles that shaped my childhood; writing and editing titles that shaped others’ childhoods. And now I get to do it all over again with Zenescope.

Z:How does writing for a big publisher like Marvel Comics compare to writing for an independent publisher like Zenescope?

Terry: As much as it was fun and rewarding to shepherd characters with so much history at Marvel, there’s something really exciting about doing the same with fresher characters who aren’t carrying as much baggage. It’s very liberating. There are more possibilities and less restrictions. Whole sections of the Zenescope Universe have yet to be explored. The heavens and hells, the future and past, etc. Plus, I’m being introduced to new talent I never would have been exposed to otherwise. And working with the great people on staff.

Z:Fans have definitely grown to appreciate your comics, thanks to your successful writing style and great story-telling. How do you plan to bring this special talent to The Musketeers?

Terry: My focus has always been on character, character, character. The action comes easily to costumed heroes and villains, but the men and women under the masks have to be fleshed out carefully and fully. Peter Parker was always more interesting to me than Spider-Man, and that’s what I wrote. Villains have to be reasonably motivated. Nobody is good or bad; real people are both at different times, under different circumstances. Doctor Doom doesn’t wake up in the morning thinking, “What evil thing can I do today?” He wants to take over the world because he sincerely believes the world will be better under his rule. And stories cannot just be a series of events. It’s very important to me that protagonists face internal conflicts, and that the resolutions to those conflicts that they choose help to evolve and define the characters. By the end of the Musketeers series, we’ll know exactly who they are, what drives them, and why they choose to do the things they do.

Z:For our fans who are unfamiliar with the new series, The Musketeers, could you briefly describe the series to new readers. Also, if any, which comic would you compare it too?

Terry: It’s an action-adventure series, in many ways more superheroey than previous Zenescope series’. And it’s going to build from a very personal story to a literally cosmic story. The last issue is going to go places that Zenescope has not yet gone to. These characters are a family. With no intrinsic motivation to do good or bad—no specific guilt or trauma like Spider-Man or Batman—but they become something bigger than their individual selves when together. They strive to be what they imagine the others want them to be—for good or bad. In that sense, I think they’re most like the Fantastic Four, but born out of a more complicated time in history. Good and bad are not the clear distinctions that the Fantastic Four recognized. The Musketeers live in a muddier world, and so they’re going to get dirtier.

Z:The characters in The Musketeers each have a different set of skills and powers. For example, Winter has world class agility and acrobatic skills, Carmen is a master swordsman and Diego has super strength. If you were a character in a comic book, what super powers would you have and why?

Terry: Ha! I think I’d want the power to make my kids listen to me, or at least notice that I’m talking. I’d definitely want the power to create more hours in the day, days in the week, weeks in the month, months in the year, so I’d have time to do more of what I love doing—telling stories comic book stories.

Z:It is unknown whether the Musketeers are considered heroes or villains. What can readers expect from this dynamic trio?

Terry: Nice try. You’ll all have to see for yourself when the first issue comes out in February!

A big thank you Terry Kavanagh for taking the time to be interviewed! Be sure to pick up the first issue of The Musketeers, which will be released February 21st 2018!